Really enjoyed. Unusually well narrated family drama with lies!
Having not read Holly Seddon’s debut novel, I have few expectations ahead of Don’t Close Your Eyes, but the premise of exploring how one set of twins circumstances in adulthood have diverged so vastly, leaving them estranged and effectively in different worlds, has long fascinated me. The answer usually lies somewhere in the past, and in this character-driven and compelling story of family dynamics, the children are the collateral damage when a series of decisions, out of their power, turn their lives upside down. Sensitive and well observed, Holly Seddon draws readers into the story of how two very different twins, but two who loved each other so intensely, have ended up in their current predicaments. Opening with a snapshot of life for agoraphobic and reclusive musician, Robin Marshall, as she loiters behind the curtains in a terraced house Manchester, her anxiety and fear is palpable. Measuring each day by keeping track of her daily step count, an unexpected caller or a mysterious letter can set in motion a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating paranoia and fear. Meanwhile, twin sister Sarah has just found herself on the receiving end of her husband forcibly ejecting her from their home and keeping her almost four-year-old daughter, Violet, away from her. Listing a catalogue of reasons for his decision, Sarah can’t argue that she hasn’t helped herself with some of her omissions, but firmly believes that Jim has misread much of her behaviour. Both of the sisters have had first hand experience of how unsettling broken families are, but Sarah decides that finding her estranged twin, always the stronger and tougher of the pair, is the first step in her aim to being reunited with her daughter.
At this point, Seddon begins to weave a story showing how the course of both the Marshall twins lives were profoundly changed by a single event in 1989, with the arrival of a new boy in their class, Callum Granger and the ensuing fast friendship between their parents. Soon the family lives are united by weekend outings, Saturday night dinners and overnight stays, but divorce, resentment and acrimony lead to the enforced separation of the twins, with continents standing between them. The course of the next five-years, until the return of both twins to original childhood home of Berkshire, is shown as the reader follows path of events to illustrate how the situation has come to fruition. Despite the chopping and changing and dual narratives running throughout this novel, is proves remarkably easy to keep on top of things and the short chapters work to tempt the reader into the next unfolding drama. Sarah’s narrative is in the first person and that of Robin in the third person, ensuring that the two’s stories are stylistically different. From the off, it was the youngster’s paths that I found so fascinating. All very different, Callum, is withdrawn, timid and obsequiously polite to his bullying father, Drew. Twin, Sarah is the people pleaser who tries to keep familial relations harmonious and obeys mother, Angie, with the more boisterous, back chatting and confrontational, Robin, siding with father, Jack. It is at the end of this five-years separation of the twins, after a mountain of compounding events that have set the roots of the staggering nightmare in motion and Seddon launches an avalanche of hidden secrets for the twins to contend with. However, it is the eventual culmination of circumstances that add a darker side to this novel and catches the reader off guard with shocks aplenty coming with less than fifty-pages remaining!
I found the quality of the writing remarkably impressive, with the story flowing well, despite split timelines, and the situations and behaviours of all the characters being underpinned by reality and easily accessible. The mental health woes of both twins were also situations that I am sure most readers will understand, with Robin’s days as an agoraphobic dictated by her attempts at controlling her surroundings, reliant on routines and overseeing the comings and goings of the outside world, with her sanity dependent upon it. Seddon’s consistency of her characterisation and their likely decisions added depth and substance to her cast. Aside from the twins, sensitive Callum’s life has also been torn upside down and it is always clear that he will feature in the drama as their fates are so enmeshed. Don’t Close Your Eyes also poses the question of whether Sarah’s story is entirely reliable, with husband, Jim, citing her acknowledged lies and questionable childcare. Likewise, the mental health of Robin has deteriorated to such a level that her world in described through the fog of her paranoia and expectation of the worst, leaving more doubts and leaving two, possibly unreliable, narrators!
With my age coinciding with the twins and Callum’s, I warmed to the natural portrayal of domestic life and found it so identifiable, with music, television, social conventions and attitudes of the era so true to life. Often with recent psychological thrillers I have found the portrayal of home life and the characters behaviour marred by stilted dialogue and making ludicrous decisions, but Seddon grounds this whole thing in reality by starting with a brilliantly understated premise and delivering a plausible story. Seddon has written an involving psychological thriller with its origins in family dynamics that doesn’t rely on a overblown and unlikely twist, but on an more conceivable web of family secrets, regrets and mistakes. To think that none of the teenagers were instrumental in setting the whole landslide in place adds a thought-provoking and poignant angle to the story. A very solid four star read which comes recommended,
At this point, Seddon begins to weave a story showing how the course of both the Marshall twins lives were profoundly changed by a single event in 1989, with the arrival of a new boy in their class, Callum Granger and the ensuing fast friendship between their parents. Soon the family lives are united by weekend outings, Saturday night dinners and overnight stays, but divorce, resentment and acrimony lead to the enforced separation of the twins, with continents standing between them. The course of the next five-years, until the return of both twins to original childhood home of Berkshire, is shown as the reader follows path of events to illustrate how the situation has come to fruition. Despite the chopping and changing and dual narratives running throughout this novel, is proves remarkably easy to keep on top of things and the short chapters work to tempt the reader into the next unfolding drama. Sarah’s narrative is in the first person and that of Robin in the third person, ensuring that the two’s stories are stylistically different. From the off, it was the youngster’s paths that I found so fascinating. All very different, Callum, is withdrawn, timid and obsequiously polite to his bullying father, Drew. Twin, Sarah is the people pleaser who tries to keep familial relations harmonious and obeys mother, Angie, with the more boisterous, back chatting and confrontational, Robin, siding with father, Jack. It is at the end of this five-years separation of the twins, after a mountain of compounding events that have set the roots of the staggering nightmare in motion and Seddon launches an avalanche of hidden secrets for the twins to contend with. However, it is the eventual culmination of circumstances that add a darker side to this novel and catches the reader off guard with shocks aplenty coming with less than fifty-pages remaining!
I found the quality of the writing remarkably impressive, with the story flowing well, despite split timelines, and the situations and behaviours of all the characters being underpinned by reality and easily accessible. The mental health woes of both twins were also situations that I am sure most readers will understand, with Robin’s days as an agoraphobic dictated by her attempts at controlling her surroundings, reliant on routines and overseeing the comings and goings of the outside world, with her sanity dependent upon it. Seddon’s consistency of her characterisation and their likely decisions added depth and substance to her cast. Aside from the twins, sensitive Callum’s life has also been torn upside down and it is always clear that he will feature in the drama as their fates are so enmeshed. Don’t Close Your Eyes also poses the question of whether Sarah’s story is entirely reliable, with husband, Jim, citing her acknowledged lies and questionable childcare. Likewise, the mental health of Robin has deteriorated to such a level that her world in described through the fog of her paranoia and expectation of the worst, leaving more doubts and leaving two, possibly unreliable, narrators!
With my age coinciding with the twins and Callum’s, I warmed to the natural portrayal of domestic life and found it so identifiable, with music, television, social conventions and attitudes of the era so true to life. Often with recent psychological thrillers I have found the portrayal of home life and the characters behaviour marred by stilted dialogue and making ludicrous decisions, but Seddon grounds this whole thing in reality by starting with a brilliantly understated premise and delivering a plausible story. Seddon has written an involving psychological thriller with its origins in family dynamics that doesn’t rely on a overblown and unlikely twist, but on an more conceivable web of family secrets, regrets and mistakes. To think that none of the teenagers were instrumental in setting the whole landslide in place adds a thought-provoking and poignant angle to the story. A very solid four star read which comes recommended,